I have often wondered what the English equivalent of Sundal is .. (Sundal in Tamil / Husli in Kannada). While curries are generally used to denote anything between Sambhar, Rasam and Kootu even extending sometimes to Poriyals, can we also then define what a sundal is, in English?? May be my dear readers will enlighten me... Coming to today's post, I have made a very simple Payiru Sundal with green gram sprouts. This Sundal can be made even without sprouting too, but somehow these sprouts are very common in my family, even with kiddo liking some dishes made out of it (need to see how long this 'like sprouts' flavour lasts....)

Quick to make, the procedure for making this and other gram Sundals is almost the same, and 9 (nine) varieties of this is generally made as Naivedyam for the Goddess during each day of Navratri. Also Sending this to my own event - Fasting foods (Vrat Ka Khaana special) along with Blogging Marathon # 8 - week 2 under "Cook with 5 or less ingredients" theme as also Flavours of the South event You could also make this for a very healthy & filling evening snack.Let's get on to the recipe.... Check out my other blogging friends here. Other dishes using Moong Sprouts that might interest you are:

1) Soak green gram for 8- 10 hours. Drain and tie it in a muslin cloth / cheese cloth overnight or over 12 hours to get fine loong Moong sprouts.2) Pressure cook this with minimum salt and water for 3 whistles. Drain the water.3) In a pan, prepare tempering with all the ingredients. Add the cooked moong dal. Stir lightly. Adjust salt and seasonings. Add grated coconut, coriander and lemon juice.4) Serve warm. This also goes well with hot phulkas for a very proteinicious meal :)

I guess in english we can call it a salad on a general note..:)..as you can make a sundal with just sprouts and onions, tomatoes which make a great salad. Curry acc to my dictionary usually means to a gravy dish made with masala. Only tamilians esp tambrahims, call the dry side dishes (poriyals) as curry. Rest of the clad refer curry to the gravy kurmas etc..but then come to think of it, there are so many names for the same dish that it's not surprising if one gets confused..:)..lovely picture by the way

@ valli - u r right to an extent : Curry is more a legacy by the British RAj in India (like the way they anglicised so many of our disehs). But the authentic tam brahms actually call any dry dish as "karamudhu" (tamil) or max poriyal . Curry is more used colloquially !